This year we will be doing more random work, not such a strict theme like last year, but I (Jeri) am going to do some prehistoric animals and plants with some inky flourishes. You can see the images below, as well as on Instagram and Facebook. Feel free to make any suggestions or comments in the comment section below.

A quick note to everyone: Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement! We appreciate everything you do to help us be successful, especially our invaluable Patreons!

Hello, Albertosaurus

I’m back to work on this, so sorry for the delay. We’ve had some rough times, I tell ya. It all started last summer with my illness, it seemed like each time I recovered from something life would take me for a ride again. The latest being the loss of my beloved Cat after 16 years, Viddies. <3 I will never recover from this loss but I will learn to pick myself up. I’ve started sketching pages and the layouts need a lot of work. Then I can work on the re-lettering and the formatting for print.

Rest in Seas

I completed and posted Rest In Seas, My Collaboration with Greg Thelen. I think it turned out really nice and it looks really pleasing. One of my favourite ones I’ve ever worked on. Thank you, Greg, for such an awesome experience!

Pet Portraits & Illustrations

My Pet Portraits have been going very well! I look forward to more orders! They’ve been a big hit as gifts for friends and memorials. I’ve found these cute little illustrations just work for me very well and I’m also doing more illustrations like these of wildlife and scenery. Soon I should have some fresh artwork for conventions. One of them is already on Redbubble as merchandise! I also have an instagram set up Just for my Pet Portraits if you want to follow them!

Etsy

As many have Noticed, I have an Etsy shop set up to use for commissions rather than through our website. I did this to get more traffic but also to sell and list other little items that don’t really fit into the Gurukitty website really, or are one of a kind pieces. More is coming soon as our Patrons know already, and Vancaf attendee’s had an opportunity to purchase. I’m just working out some logistics and making enough stock to start off. Soon!

Canada Post

There is currently a dispute in Canada Post that may or May not (?) disrupt Shipments to and from canada. We will do our best to ship though alternative services but at this point that is fairly limited and would cost significantly more. We will be sure to update as things progress.

Bones of the Coast: The Shining one

The final comic has been shipped off to the editors and after only one minor edit (Unheard of) the comic will be complete! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that that comic will be out of my life, it was quite a rocky adventure. Patreons will be able to read it early this week after the final edits are complete.

Illustrations

I had just completed a painting of a cecaelia and I used iridescent acrylic as hair to make it super shiny and sparkly, however that presents some challenges with making prints. I am thinking of making some limited edition prints on rag paper and painting in the hair with that same silvery shiny paint. It would be VERY labour intensive and so there would be a very limited number of them. Regular prints do look cool still too, so they will appear in the shop soon but are already available on redbubble as a lot of cool things!

Commissions

I have opened up commissions now that that comic project is done. I’m hoping for some nice challenges and new ideas to bring to life for people who have a love of tangible real-life artwork.

Website

We have been working away on the Gurukitty Website behind the scenes a bit, and you may notice the menu changing a bit, products slowly being added to the shop and pages popping up. We are working on condensing even further and getting rid of the StoreEnvy shop, keeping everything contained. Our website has a lot of functions and adorable things we can do with it that we just haven’t had time to fully explore. We will keep our redbubble shop as it has some awesome products we would never be able to manufacture and sell on our own.

Daqueran

Now that the Bones of the Coast comic is complete, i will begin work on Daqueran again, as promised. There is a bit of unfun script and layout work to be done before any pages will be showing up, but it will be done. I just need to finish a couple illustrations for a series first and maybe make a nice fancy Daqueran Illustration to re-acquaint myself with the characters.

It’s that time of year again, VANCAF is this weekend and of course we will be selling our stuff there. We will have most of our usual stuff (minus out of print books) but we also have new art prints and will have some cute new things this year to try out.

VANCAF is on May 21-222016Sat. 10am-6pmSun. 11am-5pm at 181 Roundhouse MewsVancouver, BC. We are going to be in Hall 1 at Booth F8 and we will both be there both days!

Last year Greg Thelen and I joined forces to submit a story for Cloudscapes Bones of the Coast Anthology. Unfortunately, we were rejected however we decided we liked the story and we were going to create the comic anyway. Well, after much waiting (For me) and anticipation it is finally complete! I think it turned out amazing and I hope you enjoy it.
If you do enjoy our work, please consider becoming a Patron.

New Product

Inktober is over, and I have a bunch of ink draws that I decided to do something with. I’ve decided that since these adult colouring books are all the rage right now, I might as well try it out. I have selected several of the images from inktober 2015 and made them into an adult Colouring book.

Epic Canadiana 2

We got to see the printed copies of the Epic Canadiana #2 that was being published by Cloudscape Comics, and it looks great! As soon as it is avaiable to the public, we will let you know. I have 3 credits in 3 different stories in that one, I illustrated some of the Ghost Woman comic, I lettered Jayleens comic, and I inked another story in there. It’s been a busy year.

Bones of the Coast

Currently, I am illustrating a story for another Cloudscape anthology, patreons are seeing some sneaky peeks of the characters and process and the rest of you will be seeing some early next year.

2016

With a new Year coming up fast, I plan on spending more time on some of my personal projects such as the Gourd Wife, Finishing Daqueran and the Extinct Animals art book.

Inktober

Inktober was great! I was in a huge slump, wasn’t really feeling like anything but forcing myself to draw a picture every day, whether I liked it or not, pulled me right out of that horrible hole and now I’m in a big new wave of creativity! I’m in love with the hominid cryptids I did and was actually a little sad when some of them sold, or were raffled away. Very grateful for the sales and that people will be enjoying them, though. I think a few of the remaining ones will be framed and hung up on my wall.

Hello, Albertosaurus

Hello, Albertosaurus has has a few pages here and there with some loose interpretations of “weekly” updates. I’m actually out of pre- layouted pages and am finding that the final chapters need some work. I’ll probably continue to have spotty or floating updates as I sort that out but actually, we are nearing the end of this story. bear with me while I pull it together and also work through some other paid work. (see below)

Rest in Seas

The comic I was working on for Halloween has been postponed until March. I had too much going on at the time (and now) to manage to pull that one off well. It’ll be done by April.

Pop Up Pet Shoppe

I’ll be selling some adorable paintings of pets (cats and dogs) at the Pop Up Pet Shoppe in New Westminster on December 12th and 13th. Come down and get some original art work, and treats for your pets. There is even photos with Santa. I may be there on the Sunday, if you want to come say hi! I have to dedicate a fair amount of time to producing art for this event which is why the Hello, Alberto updates are spotty.

Pet Portraits

On that note, I have also opened up Commissions of Pet Portraits!(the link is permanently under “shop” in the menu) I think they make a lovely personalized Christmas gift for pet lovers in your life. If you’d like to have them mailed to you by Christmas you should order now! I’ll be leaving them open for a while as we are raising money to send sister Jeri to Veterinary Technician school. When my schedule gets overwhelming I turn off the commissions though so get them while you can.

Inktober is upon us again and we will be doing weekly art draws , like last year, as well as offering our Inktober ink artwork for sale. Since there are two Gurukitties, there will be 62 images to pick from and two themes to pick from.

Guru is going to be doing Creepy Crypids! Cryptozoology is a legitimate science! Kitty will be doing Animals (Here and Gone) following the theme of extinct animals but including other cuties.

Each artwork will be 5×7 inches big and signed by the artist and will not contain watermarks. Originals will be mailed free of charge for draw winners. You must be willing to provide a mailing address.

To enter

Simply comment on this post (feel free to suggest cryptids or animals you would like to see when you do), you will be entered into a draw. A new draw will started each week and you will be able to see new images each day.
While we will be posting images on Instagram and Facebook, only comments on this post will count to the weekly draw.

If you aren’t interested in entering a draw and just want to purchase some of the artwork, they will be available in the shop (for a limited time) as well and any purchased will be removed from the draw immediately (being marked as SOLD in the gallery).

Animals

Cryptids

Production Notes

Keep up to date on what we are doing, even when we run silent.

Hello, Albertosaurus

Still working on Hello, Albertosaurus! I missed a week updating because I ended up in the hospital but I’m back on track and hope there won’t be too many unexpected surprises like that one. I’m a little behind on my publishing goal so I’m not sure how to catch up on that one. but I’ll try. I’d love to have it published by next VANCAF.

New Projects

Well, I can’t say too much as I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say but I am working for a comic about cats with a company. The designs are done and we’re just working on some stories to build up. It’ll be on Tapastic as well as the business’s site so if you watch our Tapastic you’ll see it when its updated. Our patrons on Patreon are already getting all the details.

I’ve also added my own cat comic, House Lions, to Tapastic. It’ll be just an intermittent comic. Whenever I get a spare moment and inspirations some more silly cat comics will happen.

I have a few short comics in my head I’d really like to start putting into a physical form as well, so that will likely be another Tapastic series. Spreading myself thin, you say? Nonsense! 😛

Bones of The Coast

I’m also working with a really lovely writer, Greg Thelen, on a pitch for Cloudscapes latest anthology project Bones of the Coast. I’m stoked about this one because the theme is perfect! I love horror and I love the coast!!! Gregs story is a winner, I know it! I just hope my drawing and colouring will do it justice and we get accepted into this anthology.

Extinct animals

Working on more extinct and endangered animals, I posted two new paintings on DA and on the website. Patreons also got a sneak peek of a cryptid painting I am working on.

Newest paintings are of a stellers sea cow and a whale shark. The whale shark was suggested by a convention goer at Vancaf 2015.

If you have a suggestion for the next extinct animal (mostly due to human activity), let me know! With a huge list it’s sometimes hard to pick which one to do next.

Sneak peeks are posted on Patreon.

Daqueran

Still pluggin along on Daqueran, some previews have been showing up on Patreon. I am trying to get several pages done before I start posting again. Patreons are getting sneak peeks and will get to see the pages right away as I finish them.

Bones of the Coast

I will possibly be working on a story for Cloudscapes latest anthology. More on that once I confirm. I have been designing characters for it already, so hopefully the script, written by Bevan Thomas,gets accepted.

Epic Canadiana

I will be inking part of another story for the Epic Canadiana 2, just helping out a friend who is injured.

Possible new webcomic

I am in the talks with someone about possibly doing a webcomic with them, it would be a long way off yet, but it would be a considerable project. More on that as it develops.

Production Notes

Keep up to date on what we are doing, even when we run silent.

Epic Canadiana

The Ghost Woman story I was doing for Cloudscape comics is DONE! I used Eon Comic boards and I really liked them; they were super bright white and smooth so they scanned very well. I also got wrangled into lettering Gwu’s One Flew Over for Epic Canadiana as well, and I used Manga studio 5 for lettering, as usual. I do like that program but I did have some issues with characters getting cut off with the text tool and having to correct them with spaces and other tricks; obviously not a bug free program.

Daqueran

Now that my outside obligations are once again complete, I will be working on Daqueran. I would like to be able to have it complete within a year, and hopefully soon after that I would like to have a trade paperback of the entire series complete. One thing that might delay the paperback is that I would like to re-do the first issue, it was done digitally and I think it’s akward; it was also done a LONG time ago (2007) and it needs to be …better. But I can always have the final chapter complete for next convention season, and then the trade ready at some point in the near future. I hope some people are looking forward to that.

Extinct animal series

The Thylacines are complete! We were selling prints of them at Vancaf this weekend. I am hoping to make an extinct animal art book and I was thinking of throwing in some endangered animals as well, since we are getting requests at conventions for specific animals (Whale Shark has been added to this list).

One Flew Over

One flew over is finally complete! To my horrible shame I was horribly late with getting it done. All the sick cat drama took so much of my time. Anyway, it’s done and I think it looks good! I’m really excited about that one. We stayed up till 2am finishing. Jepi helped by lettering for me. Patreon patrons have seen a couple pages already but everyone else will have to wait until it’s in print.

Hello, Albertosaurus

I didn’t post a Hello, Albertosaurus page this week because I had to prepare for Vancaf but since Vancaf is the last show of the year for us I’ll be back to regular updates next week. I’m going to try to have it printed by next Vancaf so in less than a year we will be posting pre orders for it. I’m so excited!

Conventions

Vancaf has been a huge success for us. We didn’t bring enough comics on the first day and actually sold out around 2pm! We sold all our bags too! We brought them as an experiment to see if they would sell so we didn’t have too many but still surprised! I’m so excited about someone carrying around a hello, albertosaurus bag in the city, haha. You know, someone other than me. We will have more bags in the future and maybe other things too. When we do conventions like this we get lots of questions on how we get started and stuff like that. So many times people ask how they can get started but there is really only one answer to that question. Make some comics. You can’t think about diving into the convention scene without anything to sell promote. Web comics are a great way to build a following so when you do go to conventions you have something to sell and share.

Production Notes

Keep up to date on what we are doing, even when we run silent.

It’s been a tough month. Aside from our apartment being in renovation mode (re-piping) so all our furniture and stuff from the bathroom, hall, foyer and half the kitchen being crammed into our living room and studio spaces, I was struck down by a flu, followed immediately by a pretty bad cold. All of that is coming to an end, but it’s left me in a bit of a crunch time. We also had Fan Expo in there. It’s not our favourite convention by any stretch but we get a lot of social media interaction after that convention that makes any of the frustrations worth it. Vancaf is coming up soon, which IS our favourite con. It’s actually the only con that really CLICKS for us. We don’t have the means to run off the to USA or Toronto for other conventions.

Hello, Albertosaurus

I missed one week posting but back to regularly scheduled posts! I’m really loving the scenery in it. We’re up to Page 6 of 14 pages for Chapter 4. I only have layouts done up to half way through chapter 5 so I guess once “one flew over” is done (see below) I’ll be doing that in the spare time between hello, Albertosaurus pages. It takes me roughly 9-10 hours per comic page (from sketch to lettering) so when I also work a 40 hour a week job it takes its share of my “free” time.

One Flew Over

Pages in progress

This is the comic I am drawing, written by Jason Wilkins (a writer I enjoy working with a great deal!) is for Cloudscapes second volume of Epic Canadiana. I am lucky enough that I got to work on the same characters/ story arc as in the first issue and its been great. the story is awesome so I’m really keen to do a decent job. More motivation came with the arrival of my Eon Comic boards which are luscious to work on. A little pricier when you factor in the shipping costs but worth it given that I enjoy working on them so much, especially with ink.

I’ve got the layouts done on this and I’m working on Pencils. It’s due May 1. I think I can get all the art done by then but I’m a little worried about getting the lettering and stuff done by then. Time will tell. I’m going to try to spread Hello, Albertosaurus out through the weekdays (after work) to fit in more One Flew Over on weekends.

Epic Canadiana 2: Ghost Woman

Preview panel

Cheese the ink bottle tipper

I’ve been using mostly a quill

Sometimes I use a brush too

I am running a bit behind with this one, it’s due May first and I’ve one just begun inking. Our Kitten cheese also knocked over my bottle of new ink I was going to try out, luckily I had some spare Winsor and Newton and Speedball ink hanging around.

Extinct Animal Painting Series

Dodo and other artwork currently on display at Deserres

I’ve completed the Dodo and it is currently on display in the front window of Deserres (Art Store) on Broadway (1431, West Broadway, Vancouver). The Dodo was painted on Hot Pressed Fabriano paper and inked with Deleter waterproof ink using a Quill pen.

Right now, I am creating a painting of a Thylacine pair, which is my favorite animal. I am using hot pressed fabriano paper again and Winsor and Newton artists quality watercolours because I liked using the quill pen to ink and I want the series to all look similar. Quill inking does not work well on Soft and Cold Pressed Paper.

One of the challenges of this painting series is finding accurate information on the environment and original habitat of these animals. The information tells you where the animal lived, but images of that area from the time they were alive isn’t available. What you get is modern images which in the case of the Dodo’s natural habitat is now all beach resorts, and I am sure a flightless bird didn’t spend time rolling on a beach.

Completed ink of Thylacine pair, ready to paint!

I often will print multiples of the sketch and test value and colours with markers or watercolour

The first splashes of paint!

In progress inking with light pad and quill pen

Most up to date of progress: most base colours are in and I’ve started shading

Original half completed sketch

Daqueran

Fret not Daqueran fans, it is not forgotten, once the Epic Canadiana comic is over I will be doing Daqueran again. I even have some progress for you as I have been thumb-nailing pages! ITS TRUE! I’ll even show you a page of thumnails! I will be happy to finish this story finally, but it doesn’t mean I dont have plans for these characters to come back in additional short comics or something.

Here is a brief overview of the Ames Lettering guide to replace the tutorial that was lost. I’ve redone it in comic form with drawings instead of blurry camera photos, so I hope it is more enjoyable to read. Feel free to comment on this post at the bottom if you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them.